South Korea's three largest shipbuilders are deepening partnerships with U.S. companies as they pursue opportunities created by U.S. President Donald Trump's Make American Shipbuilding Great Again initiative (MASGA). The push comes as the United States seeks to reverse decades of decline in its commercial shipbuilding capacity — a sector now dominated globally by China and South Korea, which together account for the lion's share of new ship orders by tonnage.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, and Samsung Heavy Industries signed a series of agreements and contracts with U.S. firms and institutions during the opening ceremony of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center in Washington on Thursday.

The center is designed to expand bilateral cooperation in ship design, production, workforce training, and smart shipyard development, while simultaneously helping Korean shipbuilders strengthen their foothold in the U.S. market. As the United States endeavors to rebuild its domestic shipbuilding industry, Korean shipbuilders are seeking to broaden their U.S. production bases and technology partnerships. For Korean yards, the partnerships offer a route into a market reshaped by U.S. national security concerns over reliance on foreign-built vessels and a shrinking U.S.-flagged merchant fleet.

Hanwha Ocean Signs Joint Design Contract and Workforce MOUs

Hanwha Ocean made the most extensive moves among the three shipbuilders. The company signed a professional services contract with Leidos Gibbs & Cox, a leading designer of U.S. Navy vessels, to jointly design a Global Fast Sealift vessel. This agreement elevates the companies' cooperation from a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in April to strengthen naval shipbuilding capabilities, advancing it to the joint design stage.

The two companies plan to design the vessel collaboratively and develop related technologies, combining Hanwha Ocean's shipbuilding capabilities with the expertise of Leidos Gibbs & Cox, which has designed more than 70 percent of the U.S. Navy's surface ships. The partnership targets both the U.S. and broader global markets. The vessel will be designed for commercial operations during peacetime and military supply transport during emergencies.

Hanwha Ocean also signed separate MOUs with Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania covering shipbuilding technology education and workforce development, and with the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia on supply chain cooperation. These partnerships are intended to secure local workers and suppliers around Hanwha Philly Shipyard, the company's U.S. shipbuilding base, which Hanwha Group acquired in 2024 to establish a domestic U.S. manufacturing presence.

"We will expand cooperation in the areas the United States needs most, centering on a local production base," said Jung In-sub, president and head of Hanwha Ocean's Management Support Office.

HD Hyundai Partners with Siemens on Smart Shipyard Platform

HD Hyundai moved to strengthen its partnership in the smart shipyard sector. HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the intermediate holding company overseeing HD Hyundai's shipbuilding operations, signed a final contract with Siemens Digital Industries Software on Thursday to introduce a next-generation marine platform.

The project will use AI and other digital technologies to connect the entire shipyard process — from vessel design and production to supply chain management and maintenance. The two companies plan to test design changes and production processes in a virtual shipyard that replicates actual operating conditions. Information generated through the system will then be transmitted to production sites in real time to enhance efficiency and quality. Smart shipyard technology has become a competitive differentiator among top global yards, with Korean builders investing heavily in automation and digitalization to sustain their cost and quality advantages.

Samsung Heavy Industries Advances Multiple U.S. Partnerships

Samsung Heavy Industries also expanded its cooperation with U.S. companies. The shipbuilder received approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for the basic design of a liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel with a capacity of 12,000 cubic meters (424,000 cubic feet) that it is jointly developing with Conrad Shipyard. The certification marks the first tangible design result since the two companies established their partnership in December 2025.

Samsung Heavy Industries will also conduct joint research on autonomous navigation technology with Saronic Technologies, a developer of autonomous surface vessels. Additionally, the company agreed to establish a training center for shipbuilding workers with Vigor Marine Group, which specializes in ship maintenance, repair, and overhaul.

Collectively, these agreements extend Samsung Heavy Industries' U.S. partnerships across ship design, future maritime technology, and workforce development. The breadth of deals across all three Korean builders signals an effort to embed themselves across multiple tiers of the U.S. maritime industrial base — from commercial vessel design and naval architecture to workforce pipelines and advanced manufacturing — as Washington weighs additional policy measures to incentivize domestic shipbuilding.

Source: Korea JoongAng Daily